1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of wrapping material and particularly to the field of the wrapping of flowers or floral arrangements and the like. Still more particularly, this invention relates wrapping material in which a tab closure device is employed in order to hasten the process.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Commercially speaking, the wrapping up of goods for sale and the like is a well-known field. Usually, this is done on a wholesale basis where the item to be wrapped is hand covered with the wrapping material. Most wrapping steps include the act of wrapping the object inside the material and then insuring that this wrapping remains closed either by gluing, tieing, taping or the like.
In the field of floral wrapping, for example, groups or bunches or arrangements of flowers and other decorative material are gathered together by hand and then those particular items wrapped with wrapping material such as paper, foil, plastic and the like. After wrapping, the material may be joined or held together by using either a pre-applied sticky-tape from which a removable cover sheet must be removed or by other physical means such as regular tape applied over the joint or by string or rubber bands, etc. For example, in one prior art method for wrapping of flowers, used for some time, a plurality of separate sheets of wrapping material is placed on the table. Each of these sheets has a pre-applied strip of quick-release, sticky tape adhesive on one end of the sheet. In order to prevent each sheet from sticking together with the neighboring sheet, a small sheet is applied to cover the sticky surface. This cover sheet is usually made from some high gloss material which can be easily removed from the sticky surface. After removal of the cover sheet, the flowers are wrapped in the material and the exposed sticky surface is pressed on to the wrapping material itself in order to insure closure. This is a time consuming step and uses considerable labor intensive work. In the floral industry, where the margin of profit may be small, it is usually imperative that the operative steps of this wrapping process be kept to a minimum. When the wrapping requires separate steps of peeling, tieing, pasting or the like, then the labor cost to the manufacturer increases.
A recently introduced method for wrapping floral arrangements relies on the aforementioned prior art system for furnishing the wrapping material with some sort of adhesive already applied. In this particular case, several sheets of pre-cut wrapping material on which a strip of pressure sensitive adhesive has been applied, are laminated together along and using this strip of adhesive. This is accomplished by placing the back of one sheet (on which there is no adhesive) over the top of another sheet on which the adhesive is exposed, and pressing the sheets together to bond adhesive to back. To use this material for wrapping flowers and the like, the user lays the pad, or laminate of sheets, on the table with a layer of adhesive exposed. The user lays the floral arrangement on a corner of the material away from the adhesive layer and rolls the arrangement towards the adhesive strip wherein a funnel-like system is formed. When the user reaches the adhesive end, the sheet is pulled strongly to remove the sheet o from the pad and the two ends joined by using the adhesive strip to adhere along the fresh, wrapping material. Although this particular process is very similar to that in which individual, tacky sheets with a cover sheet are used, there are significant drawbacks. For example, it sometimes is difficult to separate an individual sheet from the pad. This step requires some pulling and this sometimes distorts the floral arrangement or adds wrinkling to the wrapping material. These are undesirable facts and there has been a long-standing need to furnish a quick-wrap process that provides neat and easy closure thereto.
There is also a long-standing need to furnish a quick wrapping system that can be easily used, quickly closed and which will not require the use separate strings, tapes or twisters and the like, one in which the final wrapping will appear smooth an without tears or wrinkles. Finally, there is a long-standing need, especially in the floral wrapping industry, for a system which can be used to quickly wrap flowers and the like without external closure devices and which avoids the inherent problems of sheets containing sticky layers themselves.